Everybody warned me. "You will never finish on time. You will go over budget. And you will be lucky if your marriage survives." Well it already looks like I have two strikes against me so I'm doing my best to save the third. With a budget concern I knew I had to start trimmin fat. One place I didn't want to cut corners were the windows because I know how important they are, and more importantly, these are one of the few things my wife picked out. I just got a price from the Marvin dealer and OUCH! Now I'm going to have to break the news to my wife that after all her research, shopping around, and picking her favorite style and brand of windows, she has to do it all over with something cheaper. I have to find a very nice quality window, but it just has to be about 20% cheaper. The windows I heard were less expensive are Millguard, Kolbe & Kolbe, and Weathershield. Are these good? Junk? Will they hold up and withstand the elements like Marvin? If I can pull this off maybe I will only get the couch for a week and save my marriage!

 

If you think Marvins are expensive, you must not have shopped around much. When I built my log house a few years back, Marvins were a LOT cheaper than the other brands I looked at (Andersen and Pella).

Sorry I don't have a recommendation for you. But having been there, done that, I share your pain.

 

I have done two homes with Milguard. I think they are great. Have had two fail,they were out within one week to replace. No questions asked.

 

Just had all 17 of our double hung windows replaced with Milgard fiberglass. We love them

 

I understand Marvin makes different lines of windows. I'm not sure which Marvin windows you were looking at Md2lgyk but the ones we wanted were way more expensive than Andersen. {My wife did not like the Andersens so much}. I also heard the Marvins we wanted are slightly more expensive than the Pellas. I was told the Marvins were a slightly better made window. None of this matters anyway, once my wife makes up her mind it takes a miracle to change it! She is treating this window selection like were picking out furniture. Just trying to find something that looks like Marvin but cheaper.
Randy, I don't think the fiberglass thing will fly. They have to be natural wood, at least on the inside. The outside we may paint.

 

mannylew,

Never fear. Four of our windows were in "stained" rooms. Milgard offers an option with unfinished vertical grain fir veneer on the inside....real wood. My task was to match the pine woodwork in the rooms which has a "gunstock" color. I used Minwax water based stain followed by two coats of satin water based polyurethane. They turned out beautiful.

 

Mannylew
Kolbe and Kolbe are having problems. I found this site below. They probably have more info for consumers on Kolbe problems than anyone. I emailed them and they were very informative. I heard Milgaurd were pretty good for their price. Andersen is a cheaper window than Marvin and is good also. Hope you have a comfy couch! Here is the site I found http://www.leakywindows.com